Stool Sample

Have a commission for a small dining room table and six stools out of White Oak. I’ve finished the table top out -It’s 1 5/8” Oak, 36” x 60” and started working on the stools – this is the prototype. I added a fading indent and Walnut buttons to give it a little “flair”, (I’ll use Ebony on the final). This was the sample for her to look at – this one will end up at my house – as all prototypes do – (which makes my house full of mismatching chairs and tables….), or at the shop. The legs are angled at 6 1/2 degrees which makes for a compact stable little stool – the through tenons help give more strength. The top rails use floating tenons cut on a 45 to meet at the corners. The seat is cut on the table saw….once set up, these are fairly simple to make and look pretty good!

Very creative title I must say! And very nice stool sample! Glad it’s not of the smelly type!

I like the through tendons, I used this method on some stool’s I made and after a year of use they are still holding up without any movement. I posted them a while ago. I would only make one change to the stool’s I made. I would round over the edges a bit more. My stool seat top look very similar to yours. the sharp edges are a bit hard on your legs if you sit on them for any length of time. So a more rounded or relieved edge I think would help. Nice job, I’m sure they will be happy with your work!

-- Tony C UAW, St Augustine FL, My high school shop teacher said "You can do it"... Now I can't stop!

Thanks all – I actually texted the client that I had a “stool sample” for her before I realized what I said…..if you can’t laugh at yourself…....

Pinto – I finally figured out that when I cut the compound miters for the legs have the rails ready and straighten the saw back to 90 and cut the rails with the angle still set for the miter gauge – took me for ever to figure out….Mark the upside of the legs – set the saw and miter gauge to 6 1/2 degrees cut one end on all – move miter to miter gauge slot on the other side of the saw and cut to final length (two with the up side up and two with the up side down) – put the saw back to 90 – cut all the rails (except the top rails under the seat) to whatever length you want, allowing for tenons – the angles are always a perfect match this way. Dry fit and measure for the top rails. The angle is already there for a tenon cutter on the table saw or – I use a Multi-router (a must for chairs in my opinion) – Longer answer than what you were looking for, but that’s what I know!